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Conceptual modeling versus visual modeling: a technological key to building consensus

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Abstract

Debate has long been a hallmark of the academic endeavor. The recent introduction of computers into academic life has not been the deus ex machina to bring sudden resolution to these debates. There is a new computing technology, however, that has some promise in this regard. It is called conceptual modeling. This paper' demonstrates how a computer-based model of a problem domain can lead to consensus when competing approaches to the domain can be encapsulated in different visual models that are applied to the same underlying conceptual model.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Summer Institute of Linguistics, 7500 West Camp Wisdom Rd., 75236, Dallas, TX, USA

    Gary F. Simons

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  1. Gary F. Simons
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Additional information

I am indebted to many for making the research reported herein possible. Terry Langendoen and Dominic Dunlop assisted materially in providing the data files for the tagged text example. Robin Cover has played a crucial role as provider of inspiration, tutelage, and source materials for the example from textual criticism — a domain which falls outside my own area of expertise. John Thomson has collaborated in the design of CELLAR ever since the idea was conceived late in 1987. He has also led the team of Smalltalk programmers who began working in 1990 to implement CELLAR. Members of this team (listed with length of service) have included: Larry Waswick (5 years), Sharon Correll (4 years), Marc Rettig (2 years), Jim Heimbach (2 years), Nathan Miles (18 months), and David Harrison (9 months). The development of CELLAR has been funded in large part through a grant from Wycliffe Bible Translators (Huntington Beach, California).

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Simons, G.F. Conceptual modeling versus visual modeling: a technological key to building consensus. Comput Hum 30, 303–319 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00115139

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